


You'll Barely Even Notice

by ampersandcastle



Category: Tales To Be Told - The Mechanisms (Album), The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Gambling Addiction, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It's not as bad as the tags make it seem, Jonny is Sad, One Eyed Jacks, but it isn't horrific either, it's not happy, just run of the mill Mechanisms angst, the song is fun until you actually focus on the lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24976351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ampersandcastle/pseuds/ampersandcastle
Summary: Jack is dead, the casino is in ashes, and Doctor Carmilla is helping him get off that dead-end planet. He should be excited, but Jonny can't get those words out of his head. Jack was wrong, of course. Wasn't he?
Kudos: 54





	You'll Barely Even Notice

**Author's Note:**

> This has been bouncing around in my head for months now, ever since I really started thinking about the Mechs' origin stories. Jonny's song is so happy, for the most part, and those two lines are sort of glossed over, but they are... kind of heartbreaking. 
> 
> You guys seemed to like Stolen Faces, so I thought I'd post this here, too. It feels shorter than it is for some reason, but whenever I tried to write more nothing seemed to add anything of value, so I'm sending it out as it is, short and sweet and only a tiny bit edited. Thank you for reading!

“No one real important, and no one who would be missed. You’ll barely even notice that they’re dead!”

Jack’s words had been echoing in Jonny’s head ever since the buzz from burning the casino had faded. Actually, all three of his recent conversations with Jack and his father had been playing in his mind on a loop, but there was something about those sentences that gave them an extra sting. Jack was wrong, Jonny thought. He would have noticed if his father died, even if it hadn’t been his bullet that did it. Sure, they didn’t exactly spend “quality time” together, but he’s sure he would have noticed if his goddamn father stopped coming home. They lived together, after all, so it wasn’t like they never saw each other. 

Sometimes they passed each other when his dad was stumbling home drunk and Jonny was going to work. 

He’d got a couple of jobs playing at bars, usually old favorites and drinking songs, but sometimes he could sneak in a couple of his own songs, too. It wasn’t glamorous, but it usually paid enough to keep a roof over their heads and keep up with his father’s gambling. At least, he’d thought it had.

It was his dad who gave him his first harmonica, actually. He'd been eight. He still remembered when he brought it home, rusty and smelling like someone dropped it in a keg of stale beer.  
“Hey, Jonny,” he’d slurred, “You like music, right? Give this thing a go. I bet you’ll be a natural!”

Jonny wasn’t a natural, but he did well enough, and he’d practiced certain songs until he could play them in his sleep. When he’d gotten his father’s favorite drinking song down his dad had been so proud. He’d brought him into the casino with that very day, sat him on the bar, and had him play it for the entire room. It was one of the few times that Jonny could remember his dad really smiling, like he was so happy he wouldn’t have minded if it split his face in two.

That was one of the memories that Jonny used to dig up when he was pressing an ice pack to a black eye, trying to get the swelling down enough that he could hide it with makeup.

Yeah, Jonny thought to himself as the planet fell away beneath him, he would have noticed.

He would have.


End file.
